Thousands Brave Rain for Dominican Day Parade

Dominican music echoed along Sixth Avenue yesterday, pouring out of floats and car stereos as hundreds of thousands gathered to celebrate the 26th annual Dominican Day parade.

Asked why they braved the gray skies and rain to attend the parade, nearly every parade-goer cited patriotism.

"We have a lot of pride," Javier Fernandez, 21, said. "It's exciting to come here and represent your culture."

Mr. Fernandez said he was born in America but has spent most of his life in the Dominican Republic.

The four-hour parade ran along Sixth Avenue between 36th and 57th streets, a route lined with spectators singing, dancing, and playing the güiras, cylindrical instruments made of perforated metal.

Mayor Bloomberg marched in the parade, as did the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, and Rep. Charles Rangel, who owns a villa in the Dominican Republic and whose father was born in Puerto Rico.

The parade also included well-known Dominican radio personalities and actors, as well as Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat.

Spectators waved the country's flag and cheered as performers did traditional Dominican dances. Some wore the costumes and masks of diablos cojuelos, demon-like creatures whose likenesses people often wear during carnival.

The Dominican Day parade commemorates the anniversary of the beginning of the war for Dominican independence from Spain in 1863.

Parade organizers estimated that more 300,000 people would attend the event.

Jose Munoz, 15, a student at George Washington High School in Washington Heights, said this year the parade was more organized and that more police officers were in evidence than in previous years. Still, he said, "there were fewer fights last year."

Records of arrests were not available at press time.